Thornton Wilder Author Report
The life of a person can greatly be influenced by early life experiences. Such was the case of Thornton Wilder as his early childhood experiences and his college life greatly impacted the development of his writing techniques in many of his novels and plays. It can be seen through his works, such as the play Our Town, that his unique and interesting style of writing truly reflects the influences he had during his lifetime. His experiences with his family and the inspiration built by the admiration of a professor helped Thornton Wilder to grow into a unique author with a distinct style that set him apart from many other notable authors. His style of writing definitely reflects the experiences of his early life and
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Thornton’s mother, Isabella Niven Wilder, was a very religious lady and she spread her strong beliefs of religion down to her son. Amos Wilder, Thornton s father, was a very strict man and he often asked too much of Thornton. He expected Thornton to become very intelligent, athletic, and wanted him to have the power of concentration and the ability to do uncongenial things (Goldstone, 13). All these desires of his father led him to have a psychologically damaging effect on Thornton (Goldstone, 10). Thornton always was aware of his father s disappointed judgment of his character and capacities (Goldstone, 13). However, he could not help his love for music, art, drama, and literature. He was turning out to be precisely what Amos did not want (Goldstone, 13). As a result, Thornton grew very sensitive and lived most of his high school years unhappily. After graduating from high school, Thornton s most influential moment probably came from his college experience. His father had enrolled him at Oberlin College in Ohio. While attending the college, Thornton Wilder was greatly inspired by the chairman of the English Department at Oberlin, …show more content…
While attending Oberlin College, Thornton Wilder was able to express himself more freely and was totally immersed in the cultural life of the college (Goldstone, 21). He wrote short plays for the school and even got to perform in them (Goldstone, 21). Throughout his college life, he was able to expand his writing techniques and to learn more about his desires in literature. However, probably the greatest influence in Thornton’s writing came from a teacher, Professor Charles H. A. Wager. Thornton, who was religious and drawn to spiritual matters, was very interested in Professor Wager’s lessons on the spiritual world. It was very fascinating to Thornton Wilder and the kind of spiritual world that Wager revealed to Thornton was a feast for the young man s senses (Goldstone, 23). He was greatly drawn toward this subject and it can be seen that it had a great influence on his writing because of the fact that in his novels and plays, he uses the spiritual world to try and enforce his themes. In the play, Our Town, he uses the spiritual world to try and enforce his theme. In the play, when the people who are dead go to the spiritual world, they look back at their lives as spirits and realize the mistakes they have made in their life, such as [moving] about in a cloud of ignorance and not spending time wisely with loved ones (Wilder, 109). The use of spirits only adds strength to
Every story, every book, every legend, every belief and every poem have a reason and a background that creates them. Some might be based on historical events, some might be based on every culture´s beliefs, and some others might be based on personal experiences of the authors. When a person writes a literary piece, that person is looking for a way to express her opinion or her feelings about a certain situation. A good example is the poem “Southern Mansion” by Arna Bonptems. The main intention of “Southern Mansion” could have been to complain, or to stand against the discrimination and exploitation of black people throughout history. However, as one starts to read, to avoid thinking about unnatural beings wandering around the scene that is depicted is impossible. The poem “Southern Mansion” represents a vivid image of a typical ghost story which includes the traditional element of the haunted house. This image is recreated by the two prominent and contradictory elements constantly presented through the poem: sound and silence. The elements are used in two leading ways, each one separate to represent sound or silence, and together to represent sound and silence at the same time. The poem mixes the two elements in order to create the spooky environment.
Comparing the Writing Styles of Bradford to Byrd In the Elements of Literature English book the excerpts from the stories of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford and The History of the Dividing Line by William Byrd can be compared and contrasted in many ways. Whether it's the difference in writing styles, the difference purposes for writing the stories, or simply each writer's tone, this paper will give examples of each comparison or contrast.
Wilder uses devices such as the lack of props and connecting us to the cast to enable us to better relate to the play, thus showing us that these lessons are true in our own lives. He then uses strong shifts in perspective on events in our lives to drive home what is truly important in life. Wilder shows us that while time passes, our lives stay relatively the same. Wilder uses these
Wilder was born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1897 to Amos Parker Wilder and Isabella Wilder. In 1906, Amos Wilder was appointed American Consul General, and his family moved with him to Hong Kong. Thornton Wilder only lived in Hong Kong for 6 months, moved back to the United States with his mother, and then in 1911 rejoined his father in Shanghai for a year. Wilder attended Oberlin College for two years, moved with his family to New Haven, Connecticut, and entered Yale University. He wrote his first full-length play in 1920, which appeared in the Yale Literary Magazine. After receiving his B.A. at Yale, he traveled and taught French. In 1926, he received his M.A. in French Literature from Princeton. Thornton Wilder effectively illustrates the importance of life’s repetition in Our Town through the cycle of life, George and Emily’s love, and the playing of “Blessed Be the Tie that Binds.”
In what way is Wilder’s Our Town is an American Dream narrative because the characters in the play all portray actions of what is considered “normal” activities of the American people. For example, Mr. Webb talks about Emily and George’s wedding. He mentions that at all weddings women have the floor and are the main focus, that’s the way of a classic American wedding goes. Always have been and always will. As he says to George “All those good women standing shoulder to shoulder making sure that the knot’s tied in a mighty public way,” (59). Our Town exposed the buried secrets, hypocrisy, and oppression lurking beneath the surface of American small town life. Throughout the play Wilder presents a far more celebratory picture of a small town,
People always say how they would love to live in a small town. That they love the feeling of unity and being close with everyone in the city. In Our Town, Wilder (the author) infers to the fact that the town endures zero privacy (everyone knows everyone’s business), expectations, and people seem to be going through the motions of life, and he does not intend to idealize Grover’s Corners as an establishment of uncompromising brotherly love. Wilder makes a point to include in the play characters who criticize small town life, and Grover’s Corners specifically. I believe that Our Town is a criticism of small town life because there is no personal privacy and people go through life hoping to live up to everyone else’s expectations, missing life’s moments of happiness.
Have you ever stopped to realize life for what it truly means? Every day we go about our lives taking things for granted without even realizing the value in every moment we are given. Playwright Thornton Wilder portrays this message in the play Our Town and he does it using unorthodox theatrical approaches. By using the Stage Manager to break the “fourth-wall”, Wilder is able to have a stronger impact on those who are listening. Wilder also creates not only a seemingly boring town, but also extremely bland lives of flat characters. By doing this, he is able to emphasize events such as marriage, birth, and death with characters Emily Webb and George Gibbs. Through them, Wilder intentionally shows how beautiful life itself is, especially the seemingly insignificant moments. He uses the technique of manipulating time by rushing through each act as well as including
When a writer starts his work, most often than not, they think of ways they can catch their reader’s attention, but more importantly, how to awake emotions within them. They want to stand out from the rest and to do so, they must swim against the social trend that marks a specific society. That will make them significant; the way they write, how they make a reader feel, the specific way they write, and the devotion they have for their work. Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgard Allan Poe influenced significantly the American literary canon with their styles, themes, and forms, making them three important writers in America.
...nfortunate events, Mark Twain became very bitter, cynical and reclusive from the outside world. Edgar Allan Poe’s gothic style of writing and Mark Twain’s humorous and realism tone of writing have played a large role in the reasons of why literature is the way it is today.
SparkNotes Editors. (2002). SparkNote on The House of the Spirits. Retrieved May 3, 2011, from http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/houseofspirits/
Literary artists refuse to be categorized, defined, and completely fathomed by any standardized paradigm, but a writer's work exhibits his or her personality traits. Though authors are incapable of being defined by mere personality traits, literary accomplishments, and literary criticisms, an author's personality can be used to sketch a limited definition of his or her literature. Mark Twain's literature manifests his personality's candor, graphicness, humor, and criticalness that William Dean Howells describes in "My Mark Twain." These attributes are evident in "Old Times on the Mississippi," The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," "Fennimore Cooper's Literary Offenses," and "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg." Howells' portrayal of Twain facilitates some understanding of Twain's fiction, but by no means is Mark Twain's literature as simple as four personality traits. The traits of Twain's literature transcend simple entertainment, and he enlightens the reader about the need to reform literature, religion, society, and the individual.
The Deads exemplify the patriarchal, nuclear family that has traditionally been a stable and critical feature not only of American society but of Western civilization in general. The primary institution for the reproduction and maintenance of children, ideally it provides individuals with the means for understanding their place in the world. The degeneration of the Dead family and the destructiveness of Macon's rugged individualism symbolize the invalidity of American, indeed Western, values. Morrison's depiction of this ...
Griffin strikes all of these aspects in her essay. What is most compelling about the essay, however, is the way Griffin incorporated personal, family, and world history into a chilling story of narrative and autobiography, without ever losing the factual evidence the story provided. The chapter reads like an entire novel, which helps the audience to understand the concepts with a clear and complete view of her history, not needing to read any other part of the book. Two other authors, Richard Rodriguez, and Ralph Ellison, who write about their experiences in life can possibly be better understood as historical texts when viewed through the eyes of Griffin. Rodriguez explores his own educational history in his essay “The Achievement of Desire” and Ralph Ellison depicts his own journeys and personal growth in his essay, “An Extravagance of Laughter”. Both essays, which when seen through Susan Griffin’s perspective, can be reopened and examined from a different historical view, perhaps allowing them to be understood with a more lucid view of history and what it is really about.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by the pseudonym Mark Twain, has been central to American literature for over a century. His seemingly effortless diction accurately exemplified America’s southern culture. From his early experiences in journalism to his most famous fictional works, Twain has remained relevant to American writing as well as pop culture. His iconic works are timeless and have given inspiration the youth of America for decades. He distanced himself from formal writing and became one of the most celebrated humorists. Mark Twain’s use of the common vernacular set him apart from authors of his era giving his readers a sense of familiarity and emotional connection to his characters and himself.
As every well-read person knows, the background in which you grow up plays a huge role in how you write and your opinions. Fuller grew up with a very strict education, learning multiple classic languages before she was eight years old. Fern grew up with writers all throughout her family and had a traditional education and saw first hand the iniquities of what hard-working had to contend with. Through close analysis of their work, a reader can quickly find the connections between their tone, style, content, and purpose and their history of their lives and their educational upbringing.